


I feel it in my bones

by cloudlesslysky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hopeful Ending, Inferi, M/M, Murder, POV Harry Potter, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:53:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24931822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudlesslysky/pseuds/cloudlesslysky
Summary: Harry’s heartbeat is loud in his ears as his heart pounds in his chest. His lungs burn as he pants for air. His legs are screaming in protest as he continues to push them to their limit, forcing himself to run ever faster.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50
Collections: HD Wireless 2020





	I feel it in my bones

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Mjabbers (on tumblr) for the SPaG check!
> 
> Title comes from the song prompt Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

_Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump_

Harry’s heartbeat is loud in his ears as his heart pounds in his chest. His lungs burn as he pants for air. His legs are screaming in protests as he continues to push them to their limit, forcing himself to run ever faster.

His breathing comes out in harsh pants, and his eyes are watering from the smoke from nearby fires—the only light source available.

Draco’s hand is clammy in Harry’s grip, but he cannot let it go. He cannot let them get separated. He _cannot_ risk losing Draco. Not now.

The wailing moans of the Inferi wash over Harry and he grits his teeth. They need to shake them.

If he can just put enough distance between them and him and Draco, then he can Side-Along Draco to somewhere safe.

Just a bit farther.

“Harry!” Draco’s gasping moan is like a shower of ice-cold water along Harry’s spine. He _knows_ what that means: Draco can’t go on for much longer.

A moaning death rattle echoes behind them.

Draco whimpers.

Harry makes his choice.

_Determination. Destination. Deliberation._

He stops in his tracks, and turns around instantly, letting Draco run into him, even as it tangles their arms together uncomfortably.

For the briefest of moments, Harry lets go of Draco’s hand, before he catches him around the waist instead.

The feeling of Draco’s long fingers digging into his shoulders is grounding, and just what he needs as a gust of wind blows the smoke away just enough for Harry to see the grotesque visages of the Inferi haunting their steps.

Their pale, bloodless fingers reach towards them, their mouths open in the appearance of a wail even though no sounds leave their broken throats.

Harry raises his wand.

And Disapparates just before the closest Inferi manages to snag Draco’s pale hair.

They land hard on the mattress in the run-down apartment in the middle of London which they’ve set up as a safe house. It’s warded and impenetrable except for people who carry just the right type of locket around their throats.

The room is silent except for their harsh breathing, and Harry takes the time to breathe in the scent of Draco's hair, even as it's mostly obscured by the smell of ash and soot. He wishes that things could be better than this.

They lie curled together for a long time as they catch their breaths, neither of them saying anything. The few safe-houses that exist are the only places where it’s possible to _relax,_ and Harry is going to take full advantage of that.

He almost wishes they could stay in it forever, but he knows that it's impossible. The longer anyone stays within a safe house, the greater the risk of it being discovered. They haven't been able to use the Fidelius Charm, so they have to rely on heavy warding. Still, if it's discovered, the rest of the building can be destroyed and that would in turn destroy the safe-house... Or Safe-Apartment as it were.

Harry rolls over until he's on top of Draco, and starts kissing all over his face.

"I was so worried. They almost _got_ you," he whispers and finally kisses Draco on the lips, deep and searching.

Harry takes fierce enjoyment in feeling Draco's fingers dig into his shoulder blades as they cling to each other—desperate to prove to themselves that they're both safe, both unharmed.

  


* * *

  


"I wonder what made them swarm us like that," Harry mutters as he chews on a granola bar. "It was like they knew we would be there."

It's silent. There's not even the ticking of a clock.

What use is there, knowing the time, when the entire world stands still? The concept of time beyond day or night has entirely lost its meaning.

"It was my fault," Draco says.

Harry immediately turns to look at him, but Draco is simply staring ahead, pale and sad.

"What do you mean?" Harry frowns.

They know the Inferi can sense when too much magic is used, so they have to be very conservative about its usage lest they alert them to their presence. But Harry knows Draco didn't use a lot of magic as they searched the building, they were together the entire time after all, so he has no idea why Draco is blaming himself.

Draco is silent for a long time, and Harry almost repeats his question when Draco rolls over to his side and pulls something out of his bag.

"I found this... And I took it."

Hanging from Draco's raised fist, gleaming in the light of magical candles, hangs a golden pendant with a poisonously green stone in the middle of it.

"That looks like..." Harry trails off, staring at the necklace.

"It felt like... Like it was pulling me somewhere, while we were running." Draco stares unblinkingly at the amulet. "I think it might lead to... To the Main Crystal."

Despite Draco whispering the last words, they still hit Harry like a ton of bricks.

If that's true... _If that's true..._

He swallows.

"We're going to have to be careful," he says, unable to take his eyes off the amulet hanging from Draco's fist. "And we're going to have to set up Apparition points along the way."

"Yes." Draco nods, but he doesn't turn back towards Harry.

The amulet gleams in the candle light—fae fire, Draco had called it when they set up this safe-house—and Harry cannot squash the small feeling of hope that blooms in his chest. It's treacherous, and bound to hurt unimaginably if things go wrong, but he cannot help it. This amulet is the first lead they've found in _months_.

Harry only hopes that they'll be successful.

  


* * *

  


The fae fire casts shadows over Draco's face—along the hollows of his cheeks and down the slope of his nose—as Harry watches him sleep.

They'll be spending a few days resting and preparing before they head out again, so Harry _knows_ he needs to sleep... But he can't stop staring at Draco.

He's beautiful and the warm, pulsating light of the fae fire, but Harry longs to be able to stare at him like this outside in the sunlight. Or the moonlight. He longs to be able to calmly spend the rest of his life with Draco.

It's a hope, a wish, a possibly fruitless dream... But it's one of the only things that keeps Harry going. There's nothing else to really live for right now except the hope of a better future, the hope of _having_ a future.

The safe-houses are amazing, _excellent,_ but every time they are forced to Apparate back to one, they lose all progress they've made in searching the city. The safe-houses are only there for them to have somewhere they _know_ they can Apparate to without risking ending up in a horde of Inferi.

Setting up Apparition points as they move closer to wherever this amulet is going to lead them will be dangerous, and time-consuming, but necessary. If the amulet really will take them to the Main Crystal, the _core_ of the awful magic that is creating and animating all of these Inferi, then it's bound to be well guarded.

Harry has no doubt they might be forced to Apparate to safety more than a few times in the process, so having Apparition points to return to will be critical. Otherwise they risk _never_ reaching their destination.

Draco lets out a small noise and wrinkles his nose in his sleep.

Harry smiles and brushes a lock of pale hair out of his lover's face.

This particular safe-house gives them privacy. It's the one that is set up specifically _for_ them. Ron and Hermione have a different one, as does Dean and Seamus, and so many others of their friends. These smaller safe-houses are different from the big ones, like Diagon Alley, Malfoy Manor, or Hogwarts. _Those_ are made for large groups, for keeping society somewhat intact. _These_ ones are for the people who made them. Privacy and safety in one.

This is a home-that-isn't-a-home, but a place to rest in between mad dashes across the country to try and make sense of what is going on.

Harry turns his attention away from his thoughts and back to his lover's face. He stares at Draco as if he could burn the image into his retinas, to have it be the only thing he ever sees.

Finally he closes his eyes, drawing a deep breath. It takes him far longer to fall asleep these days, and he sleeps much lighter than ever before.

It's even worse than those miserable weeks in the Forest of Dean.

He chases the thought away with the image of Draco's peacefully sleeping face, and falls into his dreams with Draco on his mind.

  


* * *

  


Harry can feel his heart pound against his ribcage, so loud he fears the Inferi or the Herders might hear it.

Cold sweat forms on the back of his neck, making a slow slide down his skin to soak into the collar of his sweater. He divides his attention between Draco in front of him, looking around the area for anyone else, and keeping his hearing on high-alert.

They cannot be caught here. If the Herders find out that they've _found_ this place at all... Harry doesn't know what will happen for sure, but he can wager that any hope they have of breaking in and destroying the Main Crystal would be nothing but a memory.

Even though they've created an apparition point nearby... there just won't be enough people they can bring to make it possible, not if the Herders are expecting it.

This is their only chance.

At the very least their only _realistic_ chance.

Draco suddenly stops and holds up his free hand. Harry stops, and waits.

Footsteps echo through the hallway they're in. Someone is coming.

Draco doesn't move. Neither does Harry. The more still they stay, the greater the chance their disillusion charms will remain entirely undetected and Draco won't have to hide under the invisibility cloak with Harry. They decided it was better if they could move more freely, rather than being almost trapped together beneath the cloak... but Harry finds himself questioning that decision now.

He should have made Draco take the cloak instead. _Harry_ should be the one at risk right now, not Draco.

The seconds tick by, and every moment feels like an eternity.

A figure appears at the end of the hall, shrouded in a travel cloak with the hood up: a Herder.

They seem to be alone, and there doesn't seem to be any Inferi nearby... So there's a chance that they can deal with this without getting caught.

The Herder turns at the corner and starts to head their way down the corridor. There isn't much light—there never is when it's night time—but what little there is causes deep shadows in the Herder’s hood.

There is something extremely unsettling about the way the herders look and move. Harry wonders if it's a spell that causes that weird way their robes move around them when they walk.

Harry has long since wondered if perhaps they are trying to emulate Dementors. it wouldn't surprise him in the least, considering the things they're doing with the world. The Inferi apocalypse has sucked most joy out of the world just as surely as any Dementor would. It's just unfortunate that it can't be counteracted by a well-cast Patronus.

He backs up against the wall, moving slowly and carefully even though he's behind an invisibility cloak, keeping his eyes on the Herder the entire time.

His heart pounds in his chest and he feels his mouth go dry again as the Herder comes ever closer to Draco.

It's only when the Herder is almost upon Draco, that Harry finally acts. He's made sure now that the herder is alone, that there isn’t another one just behind, so now he can make sure that this one doesn't find them.

“Stupefy.”

Cast the spell almost silently, but with conviction. The magic slams Into The Herder Who falls to the floor, stiff as a board.

Harry hears Draco let out a shuddering breath, and it just reminds Harry how much he hates having to bring Draco to these places. While Draco would be incredibly upset about being described as ‘delicate’, Harry knows that Draco isn't cut out for violence. He never has been.

Harry bends down and removes the mask from the Herder’s face. While they have all agreed that they won't ever dress up as Herders, just so they will never accidentally attack one another, Harry and Draco always make sure that it’s not one of their friends or allies first by removing the mask.

It turns out to be Antonin Dolohov behind the mask, and Harry isn’t surprised. He would be just the kind of person to do this kind of thing.

Harry takes a moment to gather himself, but then he does what he needs to.

“Diffindo.”

Slitting someone’s throat never gets easier, but it’s a necessity. Now they just have to figure out where to dispose of the body. They can be sure that no other Herder won't come along, and they don't want to be found out before they can do what they need to do.

It's rather lucky that they’re in an old factory building. There are more than a few broom closets to stuff a dead body in.

  


* * *

  


They make it into the main part of the building, the large factory floor. they had to come in through the upper floor offices from the roof, because there were simply too many Inferi on the ground surrounding the building.

This whole thing would have been far more difficult if they didn't have magic, limited though it is right now.

They move slowly and silently—difficult though that is—on the walkways above all of the machinery that has been shoved to the walls and the open spaces that have been created.

The green glow is visible from far away, and Harry thinks it's some form of faery fire until they get close enough that Draco gasps and stops. The green light comes from a large green crystal that is hovering in the air above some sort of altar. Around it all is a large circle of runes and sigils that reminds Harry of nothing so much as an alchemy circle he's flipped by in a few of his textbooks back at Hogwarts or a "Black Magic" circle from Muggle telly.

"Of course," Draco whispers, and suddenly turns around, reaching his hand out for Harry.

Harry pulls him into his arms without a second thought. Judging by Draco's reaction, he has recognised whatever it is that's going on down there.

Harry makes sure they crouch down—anything to make them less visible should Draco's disillusion spells fail—and kisses Draco's temple.

"What _is_ that?" he murmurs, and waits for Draco's answer.

Draco doesn't say anything, and instead he raises his wand in the air. He swiftly cast a silence spell, and Harry feels it settle around them almost like a cold shower. He almost wonders why Draco didn't use Mufflatio, but then almost immediately realizes that they don't want the herders to hear anything from them, not just a buzzing sound.

"I have no idea how they managed to find a Life Crystal that large," Draco says, his voice shaking almost as much as his hands which are still clutching at Harry's shoulders.

"I don't know what that is," Harry admits immediately.

"It's a kind of crystal that is tightly connected to life energies. Very useful for healing magic or fertility magic if someone is trying to have a baby." Draco bites his lip and looks back towards the crystal. "The larger they are the more powerful but... I've never seen one so large before. I don't know how they got it, but this explains how they've managed to create so many Inferi."

"I assume the crystal's doing it."

"In a way, yes. They're using the glyphs and the rooms to taint and just utterly change the nature of the Life Crystal. And in doing so there basically creating the living dead.

"So if we get rid of the crystal, they should stop being infectious then? Regular Inferi aren't infectious, they don't spread their state to other people, so that must be the crystal too." Harry wishes he didn't know as much about Inferi as he does, but there's nothing he can do about it.

"Yes… It powers the Inferi that are around, so they should just drop... dead, I supposed we could call it. And it might even turn some people back into regular human beings. At least the ones who were infected and turned without being killed first. But I can't be sure."

Harry feels his heart beat pick up in excitement. If they can save people... Maybe things will not be as bad as he’s feared they would. Maybe there's still some hope for things to return to mostly normal after this.

"So how do we do it?”

Draco is silent for a long while, just staring back towards the large crystal and it’s almost sickly green glow.

"My first instinct would be to say that we should just destroy the entire crystal. Just blow it up and destroy their Inferi creator entirely."

"But?"

"If we managed to reverse the effects instead, I think that's when we have a chance of saving people who have been turned. But that is going to be way riskier and have a far larger risk of us dying rather than succeeding."

Harry ponders that for a while. He doesn't want to consider the fact that they might die, he doesn't want to risk their lives like that... But there's really no choice is it? If doing it the hard way—if destroying the ritual and allowing the crystals to remain safe—has a higher chance of saving people that have been harmed by this whole apocalypse, then that is what they should do. They shouldn't condemn people to death, just because they're afraid for their own lives.

It feels weird to think so little of his own life, but he doesn't know what else he can do. He doesn't want to tell Draco that he thinks they should do it, but at the same time he knows he can't not say it. He doesn't think Draco would really forgive him if he decides that they shouldn't try to save people. He knows that Draco thinks the world of him, and Harry just wants everything to be over and everyone to be safe.

"What do we need to do to... To change things? To fix it, I mean."

"Well, first of all we would need a distraction. Something we need to draw all of the orders and any new theory that is in the building away from here. Just for long enough that I can sabotage the room circle and switch up the necessary runes and glyphs to reverse the effects of it." Draco bites his lip. "And then we would need to keep it safe for long enough to have an effect. I don't think we can trust that any Herders who realise what is going on wouldn't come running back to stop us. So we need to be ready to fight and protect the reverse effect from the crystal."

Harry snorts. "So no pressure then. "

It's almost ridiculous how difficult this will be, and Harry wishes that they had more people to call in. He just wishes he could get Ron and Hermione down here... And Kingsley and the Order and everyone. But they can't. Not unless…

"Do you think we could set up Apparation points and call for backup?"

Draco shakes his head.

"There aren't really people who can Apparate to coordinates only, and I don't think... Setting up the Apparition point to be useful for people other than us... I think that would take too long, I don't even know if it's possible. Not to mention we risk that they find us before we can finish and then we'd lose our chance."

Harry was afraid that he would say that. He had hoped that Draco would say something much more cheerful, have some better news. He knew better than to hope for that but... Hope springs eternal.

“Well, we should still try to send the coordinates to this place to someone else. If we fail... They can hopefully take over. We can't just let this chance slip us by.” Harry fights to keep his breathing even, despite the anxiety that’s starting to burn in his gut.

There are so many things that can go wrong, and if they do… Harry doesn’t even want to think about it.

“You're right. We'll have to use the amulets to make sure everyone gets the information. So they all know what we're doing too.” Draco’s face is resolute, though Harry can see how his hands tremble.

They take a moment to just breathe, no matter how dangerous that is all things considered, and then they nod resolutely to each other. They sneak back out from the factory floor walkways and into the hallway where they first encounter a Herder. it's in this mostly isolated space that Draco cast a spell to get the coordinates to their current location.

Harry is the one who uses the amulets imbued with a protean charm to send a message to everyone else, to let them know what they're about to attempt and also where they should try to go if they fail. Just in case.

They immediately get a message back from Hermione telling them to wait and that they can probably make it there in just a few hours, because they have an operation point that's fairly close.

Harry hates that he has to tell them that he and Draco can't wait, that they can't risk staying here without doing something because of the Herders in the building and the Inferi outside it.

They get more confirmations from other people that they will start to make their way towards the coordinates they sent, with lots of promises that they'll be careful, and then Harry and Draco start to plan. They plan their line of attack, how they're going to cause a distraction, stuffed in a cupboard under Harry's invisibility cloak and with silencing spells cast all around them.

With their plan of attack finished, their next step is to sneak back onto the walkways so Draco can get a better look at the Rune and glyph placements. After all, it's not like Draco is going to be able to reverse the whole thing on the fly. they're going to need to plan it just a bit, take some time to do it before they set the whole thing in motion.

Who knows, maybe Ron and Hermione or even some of the others will make it to their location before Harry and Draco put their plan into motion, but there's no guarantee. Their friends just have to know that they will set it off but if they make it... They can help.

  


* * *

  


Harry's blood is pounding in his ears and he swallows harshly. Everything comes down to this: everything comes down to whether or not he'll be able to hold the onslaught off long enough for Draco to reverse the magic circle and end this whole nightmare.

That is, if they manage to get the Herders to run outside in the first place. Of course, there is always the risk that they will have to fight their way through to the crystal. It's a worst-case scenario Harry certainly hopes won't come to pass.

They snuck around the building, they placed some bits and bobs around outside on nearby buildings. And then Harry turned them into bombs that he'll set up when the time is right. They've made sure that the bombs are far enough from the building that they won't affect the walls. They don't want to risk blowing up a hole in a wall and allow the Inferi to swarm inside.

That would get them killed almost instantly or force them to retreat, which would lose them this chance.

There are five Herders inside the factory, as far as they've been able to tell. Now they just have to hope that most of them will leave for the explosions, so that they can take care of whoever stays behind easily enough. The element of surprise should allow them to succeed.

They've also made sure that none of their friends are nearby, but also that they know where the bombs are located just in case. Just so they won't accidentally get caught in the crossfire.

Harry shares a look with Draco, they nod at each other, and then Harry sets the bombs off.

Though the explosions of Fairly far away, the sound is almost deafening and the entire building shakes. Harry and Draco lie in wait, watching as the Herders start to panic.

The Herders yell among each other, so it's hard for Harry to hear exactly what they're saying. But soon four of them rush out of the building, leaving only a single person behind by the crystal.

It's almost the best case scenario. the only thing that would have been better would have been if no Herder had stayed behind.

They wait long enough to hear a door slam, and footsteps disappear, and then Harry springs into action. He casts stupefy on the remaining Herder without blinking, and then he and Draco immediately Apparate down to the factory floor.

Draco falls to his knees and immediately starts to alter the circle using ink he summoned from their safe house and a brush he transfigured from a can they found in the cupboard.

Harry swallows and he can't stop looking around for any sign of movement. Any sign of someone—or something—arriving.

Harry feels the hair on the back of his neck stand up as his heart continues pounding his chest. The only sound in the building is the scribbling sounds of Draco painting ink on the ground as well as their breathing.

The seconds continue to pass ever so slowly and Harry can hear his own heartbeat, can feel how harshly his pulse slams in his throat. Cold sweat starts to bead on his forehead and slowly drip down the back of his neck and into his shirt. He tries to swallow around his dry mouth and focuses on keeping his breathing even.

Harry’s palm turns sweaty as it grips his wand firmly and he has to resist the urge to wipe his hand off on his trousers. He cannot risk letting go off his wand, he has to be prepared. He has to make sure that no one can sneak up on them.

He turns in slow circles, because they don't know how many points of entry there are to the factory floor, so they cannot know for certain which direction the Herders will come from when they return.

He just wants it to be done. He just wants it to be _over_.

The sooner Draco's finished, the sooner Harry will have backup for when the Herders come back. They're both under disillusion spells, and Harry has made Draco wear the Invisibility Cloak this time. Considering how much Draco needs to move to change the magic circle, a disillusion spell might not be able to hold up if the Herders come back and look for them.

This time, Harry is the more vulnerable one. As he should be.

His biggest fear is that the Herders will send Inferi inside without coming in themselves. He's levitated the remaining Herder’s body away and hidden it, so that they won't suspect anything when they come back.

The problem is that if they call out for the stunned and bound Herder, and Harry still hasn't bothered to find out who it is, and they receive no reply... well that will instantly put them on their guard.

Harry feels tears well up in his eyes as he's forcing them open, almost afraid to so much as blink. He swallows again and forces himself to remain calm as he blinks rapidly. If his eyes dry out, it might make him blink at the wrong time and it might affect him in the upcoming fight. He can’t let panic take over.

He knows that they will have to fight.

After all, he's pretty sure that the Herders will realise that something is wrong with the Main Crystal when they return. There's no way that they won't recognise that it’s not doing what it's supposed to be doing. Especially not if it causes the Inferi to collapse, the way Harry and Draco are hoping it will.

If it's currently powering them, currently powering the curse that makes them spread the state of being an Inferi like a disease, then changing what the crystal does definitely should cure those infected who haven't been killed since their infection—or so Harry fervently hopes—but also depower the ones that are relying on its power to function.

And if a bunch of Inferi collapse, no doubt the Herders will notice.

He wants to tell Draco to hurry it up, they need to get out of here. They need to hide before anyone comes back. But he can't. Of course he can't. 

He clutches his wand even tighter and focuses on keeping his breathing even, focuses on not allowing himself to hyperventilate.

He can hear Draco muttering to himself, so he's clearly working as fast as he can, but Harry still wants him to work faster. Still wishes that things went way quicker than they are. He's afraid. Even more so for Draco than for himself.

If things go wrong, and Draco dies, Harry doesn't know if he'll go on. He might just let the inferi take him.. No. No he won't. If he does, then he's going to be a problem for his friends at a later point, probably. He couldn't put them through that. Couldn't possibly risk that.

He doesn't even know why he's thinking about these things now. There hopefully reaching a solution to all this, hopefully saving the world right here and now.

Perhaps that _is_ why Harry's thinking about this. He's never managed to save the world without losing people he loves before. Why would this time be different?

  


* * *

  


Footsteps and loud shouting suddenly echoes through the room and Harry feels his pulse spike. His breathing grows shallow, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. He moves backwards, closer to Draco, closer so that he'll be near and capable of protecting him better.

He glances at the floor, and sees the brush still move over the glyphs and runes in the circle, and swallows harshly. Draco is still working, which means that it's up to Harry to protect him.

It's now or never.

“I did it!” Draco's voice is no more than a whisper in volume, but he punches out of him like a yell.

It takes a few moments for Harry to register what he even said, the ones he does…

“Come then, we need to hide.”

The doors burst open just after Harry says it, and he freezes in place. Standing out in the open like this, when the Herders are definitely looking for something is the worst thing that could have happened to them.

Harry should have stayed hidden, he should have stayed a bit further away still looking around the room instead of stepping into the middle to stand next to Draco. At least Draco’s beneath the invisibility cloak.

Small mercies.

“Do you see anyone?” one of the Herders calls out. there's something familiar about the voice, but Harry can't quite place it.

Harry feels Draco press up against his back and clutch at his shirt, pulling it to the left. Harry moves as slowly as possible, sudden movements have a tendency to cause the solutions to shatter, or rather easier to spot. They're not true invisibility, they're more like a ‘please don't look at me’.

“There's no one here,” another voice says. This one is not familiar to Harry, but by the way Draco tenses of behind him, it's clearly familiar to him.

Harry starts to slowly walk backwards, pushing Draco behind him bit by bit. They can't move fast, even though Harry really wants to. They need to get to safety, well that is rather impossible, but at least get behind something. They need to find cover.

“Rabastan Lestrange,” Draco whispers in Harry’s ear.

Harry tenses up, just like Draco did, and has to force himself not to curse vehemently. 

He’s not exactly surprised that a lot of the herders are former Death Eaters, or rather still Death Eaters—just without Voldemort to look forward to. Still, it would have been better for them if they were just regular people had gone a bit weird in the head. At least they would have been less likely to be vicious then. Willing Death Eaters truly are the scum of the earth.

“Hey, what's going on with the crystal?” It's the first Herder again.

“Where the hell is the guy who stayed? Where did he go?”

Harry swallows harshly, and cannot understate how glad he is but he dragged the body away in between machinery. If he had left it out in the open…

As soon as they finally make it behind machinery, so they're no longer in the Herders’ line-of-sight, Harry turns on the spot and crushes Draco's body against his own. If something happens to either of them now... He wants to have held Draco one last time. He couldn't bear it if—!

Draco kisses him, fingers tangling is Harry's hair, and Harry can only assume that Draco feels the same.

The footsteps come closer, and the herders are arguing loudly amongst themselves. Harry and Draco draw part, this is not the time. They have to be prepared, though this is likely to get very ugly very fast.

Draco suddenly places something in Harry's hand, and when he looks down he realizes that it's a bag of Peruvian instant Darkness powder. He has no idea how long Draco has been carrying this around, but it's going to come well in hand. With it, they'll be able to keep the herders from seeing what is up with a crystal. And if they can't see it, then they can't counteract it.

He carefully floats some of the powder up into the air, carefully encapsulated in a bubble so that it won't start to have an effect too early. He also cast a disillusion spell on it, just so they won't realise where the powder comes from. He doesn't want to reveal their position. If they can make sure that the Herders don't know where they are…

They might be able to take them out one by one.

Harry swallows harshly around his parched throat and closes his eyes briefly. He hopes this works.

He releases the powder, and the effect isInstantaneous.

The Herders curse up a storm as the darkness spreads around them. Harry pushes Draco back even farther, and then he quickly uses levicorpus to get Draco back up onto the walkways above the factory floor.

Of course, as soon as he releases Draco from his magic, Draco returns the favor and soon they're both far above the Herders. In relative safety.

They huddle together, and Harry can feel his pulse pound his throat again. The draw box regarding their use of the Peruvian instant Darkness powder, it's the fact that they can't see the herders either. Which means that they can't pick them off one by one.

And that's when Harry remembers that he didn't kill the Herder he Stunned before Draco even started changing the magic circle. That means that if the others get out, and Harry doesn't manage to take care of them... He and Draco may end up having to fight all of them despite their plan.

“Call the bloody Inferi!” one of the Herders suddenly shouts, and Harry’s heart nearly stops in his chest.

“Oh no,” Draco breathes, his breath puffing against Harry’s ear as they press against each other.

They don’t know if their changes have had an effect yet, or even how quickly it _will_ have an effect… if any.

If the Herders call the Inferi, Harry and Draco may just have to apparate away to safety, and possibly lose all of the progress they made here when the Herders undo the work they did with the crystal.

There’s a low humming sound, followed by what sounds like a bolt of lightning hitting the ground.

“What the fuck?” Rabastan Lestrange calls out, and then…

A shockwave of green light slams out from the shroud of darkness created by the Peruvian Instant Darkness powder.

It throws Harry and Draco back, and the feeling as the wave of magic passes over Harry is almost… revitalising. It feels like nature and growing and… _life_.

“It worked,” Draco chokes out, and curls into Harry.

Harry pulls him in closer and they lie absolutely still, listening to the enraged shouting of the Herders below them, just breathing.

They have no idea what will happen now, they have no idea how the upcoming fight will go or even what will happen to them, their friends, or the Inferi.

But now… Now, Harry has hope.

Because it worked. Draco said so.

So maybe, just maybe, they’ve finally reached the beginning of the end.

Harry kisses Draco’s forehead, and breathes in the ash and dust of the air around them.

It has never smelled so sweet.

**Author's Note:**

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